


some bodies are left unburied

by Sternstunde



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, just sth short i wanted to write, klaus buries people, lots of mention of corpses, reggie dies as he does in most of my fics i guess, the other siblings get mentioned like once so i didnt put them in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 20:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18630661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sternstunde/pseuds/Sternstunde
Summary: Klaus buries corpses for the ghosts, whose bodies have never been found.





	some bodies are left unburied

When shouting hurts too much, when all his tears are dried, when his fears have eaten him alive, that’s when Klaus listens.

 

Not to the screaming ones, because they don't seem to know how to do anything else but scream his name over and over again.

 

He listens to the ghosts that stare quietly at him, whisper about things that pain them and beg him for help with their eyes instead of their words - those are the ones, that genuinely want help. That aren't just there because they miss being alive and want to blame someone else - mostly him - for it.

 

So, he listens to them and they ask for his help.

 

Many ghosts have odd requests.

 

Someone wants him to paint their room yellow, another wants that he reads them the little comics in the newspaper and some other ghost asks for him to sing them their favorite songs (he totally nails the songs, because  _duh_ ).

 

There are a thousand weird requests he never did in the previous timeline. Instead, he spent his time either on drugs or in the mausoleum.

 

But the second timeline is a new chance granted, which he refuses to throw away this time. Also, he desperately needs any distractions from the drugs he can get.

 

So, when he's not in the mausoleum, on a mission or has the training, he goes out to fulfill those requests.

 

Finding places he has to be at is easy - he spent years sleeping on different streets in different places after all.

 

Getting the stuff he needs or money is also easy because Klaus is very resourceful.

 

It's the time he needs for the requests, that is missing, so he learns to plan and schedule it.

 

And he manages.

 

He fulfills so many wishes and they move on. It works really well, that's why he continues.

 

Then he gets the first burial request.

 

A man in his twenties, body bruised and full of blood. That ghost is one of the more harmless looking ones.

 

_"My body was never found, so I never got buried."_

 

And Klaus is an asshole, fears the dead and sometimes actively avoids talking to them, but _he gets it._

 

So, Klaus finds a shovel, packs gloves, something to eat and three water bottles, before he follows the ghost to his dead body.

 

It's in an old warehouse, behind tones of empty boxes, that are abandoned. The body lies there, rotten and decaying, but still looking better than a lot of other corpses he's seen in all his years of living. 

 

Klaus nods and searches for the nearest forest. He takes the shovel, breathes in and out, and then he starts working.

 

Around nighttime, he half-carries the body to the hole and drops it in, before working on closing the hole.

 

Then he searches for something big he can write one, but he doesn’t find anything. The ghost tells him it’s okay, but Klaus can be stubborn, especially when it concerns the dead, so he gathers leaves, little stones, and wooden sticks.

 

And he decorates the whole place.

 

“Do you remember your name?”

 

The ghost nods with a smile on his face. _“Matt Lawrence.”_

 

Klaus writes it down on a stone with stars decorating it, and puts the stone in the middle. He won’t ask the ghost how long he’s been dead. Some questions just shouldn’t be asked.

 

 _“Thank you,”_ Matt whispers, and then sits down, waiting for the sun to take him away.

 

Klaus returns to his room safely, just one hour before he needs to be dressed and downstairs for breakfast.

 

The next day he buys flowers for Matt.

 

* * *

 

Most dead people speak in the present as if they are still alive. Klaus doesn’t take it against them, but he prefers the ones that speak in the past because those are the more understanding ones, the ones that listen and don’t blame him.

 

 _“I went by the name Connor,”_ the ghost mumbles. He’s missing an arm and there’s a gap where his heart should be. _“I doubt my body is still much intact… but well.”_

 

And Klaus understands, which is why he nods and grabs the shovel he hides under the mattress of his bed. That’s all he takes this time because it’s all he needs.

 

He follows the ghost to an alley (he tries so hard not to fall back into bad habits and having a task helps). The remains of his body are in a garbage can. Klaus blinks before he looks at the ghost. You don’t ask ghosts how long they have been dead for.

 

But you can go around the question.

 

“Is your death recent?”

 

The ghost nods, as he looks at the bag with his remains, a look of pain on his face.

 

“Do you want me to alert the police or something?” He asks instead of addressing the obvious.

 

The gho- no, Connor, shakes his head. _“Some things can’t be undone, and somethings should be left in peace.”_

 

Klaus wonders if the person who murdered Connor was someone he trusted or someone beyond the levels of horrible, but he respects Connor’s wish, so he takes the bag and makes his way to the local forest.

 

“It’s okay if I bury you in the forest, or… ?”

 

Connor nods.

 

After you are dead, you don’t care about where and how you are buried as much as you used to when you were alive. Klaus finds it funny. People that are alive, are so scared of dying, but yet they give it so much thought, whilst dead people think about being alive again a lot.

 

They don't go well with each other, and yet they cherish each other too much.

 

He buries Connor in a different forest than where he buried Matt. After he’s finished he decorates the grave and then finds a stone to write Connor’s name on.

 

 _“Thanks,”_ Connor whispers, as he waits.

 

Klaus walks back to the mansion, it’s nighttime and a thousand ghosts _see_ him.

 

He doesn’t think about the alley this time, but he thinks about Connor, who looked at the grave with an empty gaze.

 

Funerals are for the living.

 

Burials for the dead.

 

Klaus sees no point in both anymore, but he participates in one.  

 

Not the funerals.

 

* * *

 

They finish their training and head upstairs to wash up. Ben catches up with him.

 

“Have you been sleeping better? I haven’t heard you scream in days.”

 

Klaus grins at him. “Not, really. I was just awake scribbling stuff down.” _Half-truths are the best kind of lies._

 

Ben blinks, gazes at him for a few seconds and then nods.

 

“You should still try to sleep - it can’t be healthy for you to be awake all the time.”

 

Klaus knows, but honestly, this has always been a part of his life. Sleepless nights or nightmares.

 

“Benny, my brother,” he speaks, as he loops an arm around his shoulders,” sleep is for the weak.”

 

And then he lets go and runs off to his room, Ben shouting behind him about how stupid that statement is.

 

He doesn’t want to tell anyone yet. Especially not Ben, who will want to come with him. Ben’s seen his fair share of ghosts, he shouldn’t have to see the corpses as well.

 

* * *

 

Ghosts observe and whisper, so suddenly, Klaus gets a lot of new ghosts hunting him, and it _sucks_.

 

Some of them scream his ears full and the others ask for help in burying them, and he can’t say no to them, so the next month is spent burying dead corpses or the remains of some.

 

One day he encounters Daniela Cooper, who seems to have died about seven years old. She holds his hand - he can control his powers better now - as she leads him to the place where her body was beaten blue and black. Her ghost is not a pretty sight, and yet she is beautiful. To him, a lot of ghosts are beautiful, no matter how much wounds and rotting skin they show.

 

He frowns as he sees her body, and then he remembers something he heard on the radio last week.

 

**_“A foreign little girl went missing recently...”_ **

 

He stares at her and she stares back. She’s smart for her age, so she nods and he turns her incorporeal, as he walks his way home.

 

The next day - two hours before breakfast - he makes his way to the police station. They stare in bewilderment at the 16-year-old boy, who probably is a part of the Umbrella Academy, considering the uniform he wears.

 

Klaus smiles at them.

 

“I’m Number Four, the Séance.”

 

And then he tells them about her body. He also tells them not to mention that he found her because he doesn’t like the attention (he just doesn’t want his father to know). They agree and he leaves.

 

At breakfast, the radio plays, and Reginald has decided to lay off the tapes today, so they listen to the news instead.

 

“Daniela Cooper has been found today…”

 

Daniela waves at him, before she vanishes into the light and all Klaus feels is relief.

 

He can feel Ben’s gaze on him.

 

* * *

 

He doesn’t leave his room this night, because Ben is in there.

 

“Where are you going?” he asks, because Ben understands.

 

Klaus tells him, without trying to hide it, because Klaus understands.

 

At the end of his talk, Ben’s hugging him, and Klaus knows he has a companion now.

 

* * *

 

Except for the next day at breakfast, Reginald tells them they are dismissed - with the exception of Klaus, that is.

 

“I have seen you vanishing all night.” _Not for drugs,_ is left unsaid. “I fear I need to remind you of your place.”

 

He locks Klaus into the mausoleum and leaves just like that, no regrets.

 

The dead are wailing and he wants to wail with them, but he has long ago, given up on his tears and the pain.

 

Now all he has is a hollow gaze and shaking hands.

 

Now all he has is the comfort of the few ghosts that aren’t screaming.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, his father lets him out.

 

* * *

 

For the next two days, Ben refuses to leave his side and Vanya often comes into his room with cookies, tea or anything else, to cheer him up.

 

Luther looks at him, guilt in his eyes and Diego looks anywhere but at him, guilt in his eyes.

 

Allison offers to do his nails, holding some nail polish, and Klaus wants to, really, but he’s just so tired and everyone’s so much.

 

Five eventually gets them all out of his room except Ben, who refuses to move, and sighs.

 

Five stares at the shovel in the corner of the room - Klaus has just cleaned it recently, so it’s drying now - and then looks at Klaus.

 

“Fear is a natural part of the mind,” Five says, before grinning, “everyone fears something.”

 

He doesn’t know what Five means, but he knows he will learn or Five wouldn’t have told him.

 

A few days later he’s more or less fine again, so he grabs the shovel and leaves the room. Ben waits for him outside and they move on.

 

* * *

 

The next ghost has forgotten their name and does not remember much, but their smile is warm, so Klaus nods and follows them.

 

They find ashes instead of a body and Klaus gets the container out of his bag and fills it with them.

 

“Where to?”

 

 _“The ocean,”_ the ghost mumbles. Ben’s eyes brighten at that.

 

He releases the ashes into the wind and looks at the sunrise with Ben, who’s smiling happily.

 

The ghost smiles back.

 

“You’re warm,” Klaus tells the ghost, his cold hands, shaking and shaking as always.

 

 _“You both are a delight,”_ the ghost whispers before it leaves.

 

Klaus thinks, that sometimes his power doesn’t feel as much as a curse anymore.

 

Just sometimes.

 

* * *

 

**_“Fear is a natural part of the mind,” Five says, before grinning, “everyone fears something.”_ **

 

They are 18 now, and it has been two years since Five muttered those words.

 

Reginald Hargreeves just died.

 

_The official cause of death: Heart attack._

 

_Unofficial cause of death: Murder._

 

Reginald found out that Vanya has been training her powers. Reginald found out that they knew she had powers. A ghost told him they saw his father carrying a bottle of white pills.

 

He told Vanya and Five.

 

Five smirked and simply said, “Fear.”

 

At breakfast Reginald Hargreeves watched Vanya drink her tea, as he was drinking his own. Vanya smiled at him, he collapsed.

 

After their mother and Pogo take his body to the infirmary, Klaus turns to Five.

 

“He feared too much?” he asks.

 

Five nods, “he feared too much.”

 

Later their mom comes back, telling them that he died.

 

A week later their mom has her own identity.

 

Some weeks later they leave the mansion for another place to live in.

 

Klaus buries his fears and regrets with the corpse of Reginald Hargreeves.

 

The ghosts are still screaming.

 

He holds the shovel in his left hand.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hnnn, I don't know.
> 
> Have a good day and like always, may the stars brighten your night!


End file.
